Yellow couplers are an essential component of a color photographic light-sensitive material, and 2-equivalent yellow couplers are used in the industry to obtain a maximum dye density and photographic sensitivity with a minimum amount of silver. As an coupling-off substituent in such 2-equivalent yellow couplers, there has been known an aryloxy group described in Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection (hereinafter referred to as Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication) No. 87650/1975 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,408,194; an oxazolyloxy group described in Japanese Pat. O.P.I. Publication No. 131325/1976; a chroman-4-oxy group in the same Publication NO. 139333/1976; a tetrazolyloxy group in the same Publication No. 43426/1977; a 5-pyrazolyloxy group in the same Publication No. 150631/1977; a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic group in the same Publication No. 115219/1977; urazol group and hydantoin group in Japanese Pat. Examined Publication No. 33410/1976; and an arylthio group in U.S. Pat. No. 3,227,554.
On the other hand, requirements for coupler properties come to increasingly severe as the silver halide photographic light-sensitive material advances, and improvement in color forming efficiency is also required of the 2-equivalent yellow couplers. To meet with the requirement, there have been made various attempts in designing a coupler molecule, including proposals to introduce an alkoxycarbonyl group, or, a N-substituted or non-substituted alkylsulfonamide group or arylsulfonamide group as a ballast component. However, improvement in color forming property is not yet attained. A 2-equivalent yellow coupler with a hydantoin group as the coupling-off substituent is known to have an excellent color forming property, but it has disadvantage in poor solubility and unstable dispersibility in emulsion; therefore, improvement in these properties is strongly desired. Meanwhile, it is desired to reduce an amount of benzyl alcohol used in a color developer solution, or not to use it at all, in order to prevent environmental pollution and a problem caused by formation of tar in a developer solution. But, such reduction or nonuse of benzyl alcohol tends to lower the color forming property. Therefore, it is of much value to develop a yellow coupler which exhibits an excellent color forming property even in a developer solution containing little or no benzyl alcohol. But it cannot be said that study of the yellow coupler has been actively conducted with the view of solving the above problems.